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Original poster

Molluscum Contagiosum - anyone's child had this?

31 replies

Michaelah · 28/01/2009 22:06

DS (6yrs) suddenly has a crop of little bumps behind knee. Thought they were warts but doctor says molluscum contagiosum. Not terribly happy about it. I gather conventional treatment is to leave them and hopefully they won't spread too much and will go in 12-18 months (!).

has anyone else any experience of this? Alternative treatments?

OP posts:
Rachmumoftwo · 28/01/2009 22:12

Both mine have had them. I tried lots of different creams with DD1 but time really was the best healer. I have just let DD2s be and they have been no different to when we tried treatments on DD1.

Some people squeeze them and find that effective- after a warm bath you can see the yellowish head.

I also found that when they are at their sorest and start to bleed and scab, they are actually on their way out.

Seona1973 · 28/01/2009 22:14

there are quite a few threads about this. Some say that elizabeth arden 8 hour cream works. I tried two treatments - zymaderm and colloidal silver but neither worked. Only time and the removal of some of them when dd went for an eye squint operation helped!! (they werent scheduled to be removed but the surgeon decided to take some from her face and the crook of her arm and I was quite glad about it). DS now has a few that have appeared but they are more hidden than dd's were which were really unsightly.

tkband3 · 28/01/2009 22:14

My DTs both had these...although the GP said they could last for up to 2 years (!), I think they'd gone in less than 6 months.

Seona1973 · 28/01/2009 22:15

p.s. dd had hers for at least a year

basementbear · 28/01/2009 22:18

Mine both had this - coincided with them starting swimming lessons. DS1 had them all over his bum and they were quite sore, DS2 on the insides of his upper arms. They both had them for at least a year but apart from looking a bit horrid they didn't seem to bother the DCs and they went away on their own. DS2 had a couple on his chest and has a tiny scar from where one was a bit scabby.

Jic · 28/01/2009 22:18

My dd had this and it took until she was about 18 months before they cleared up. I found squeezing them helped, they would go after that. You can just leave them though although I know they are a bit gross looking. DD had loads on her inner elbows, feet and on top lip. We were in Turkey when they were particularly bad and took her to the doctor there because we were really wondering what they were at this point and the doctor actually whipped them off but you definitely don't need that to happen they'll just go, i guess it's just what they do there!

OneLieIn · 28/01/2009 22:21

Vitamin e oil will get rid of them really quick

JiminyCricket · 28/01/2009 22:25

really oneliein? My two have both had them, dd1 for two years mostly around her bottom, then just as she got rid of them her sis got them, so far about 12 months of them, all over her trunk, arms, neck and behind knees - well not that whole area, but significant clumps in all those places. Currently about three weeks into trying eliz arden 8 hour, some of the angry looking ones have started getting better, but overall numbers still increasing, so don't know if that means they are going or not.

Heated · 28/01/2009 22:26

Ds' got infected and were advised to burst them after a warm bath and put antibiotic cream on and they were gone in 10 days. However, I have read it can scar but ds' didn't. DD now has them in the crook of her elbows but they're not infected so have just left them.

Cadmum · 28/01/2009 22:28

Been there done that. It went through all four of our dcs. Thankfully it is a fading memory but it felt like a nightmare. We gave up swimming lessons because it was too humiliating for the older two to continuously explain the spots.

Dd1 was particularly badly affected as she had several infected spots. Watch for this as it is very painful and leaves scars. Two required draining and a course of antibiotics.

It seems to me that it did take nearly 18 months to run its full course and NOTHING helped. (I am to say that I tried a few of the gimmicks and the EA cram to no avail. I was desperate to prevent the baby from contracting it and sick to death of the comments from other parents.)

Cadmum · 28/01/2009 22:30

EA cream even...

Diggle · 01/02/2009 01:43

I've been trying zymaderm for less than a week, coupled with colloidal silver and thuja tablets for some two weeks. The original molluscum (now 2 months old) is the only one that's reached any size, the rest are tiny (1mm). But they're still popping up all over the body and legs of DD (4 yrs). Will all these little ones get bigger? What sort of rate do they grow in size? Or is there always one super molly? Thanks all you other mums for the advice on cures.

Aefondkiss · 01/02/2009 02:10

diggle, more info here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molluscum_contagiosum though I am not sure how useful it will be.

Original poster
Michaelah · 02/02/2009 14:48

Thank you so much everyone - so comforting at least to know that there are others out there. Am thinking about whether to launch on a frenzy of vit e, EA etc, or to pretend isn't happening!

OP posts:
GrimmaTheNome · 02/02/2009 14:53

Has anyone's child, who has had swimming lessons, not had this?

One small word of experience. I explained clearly to my DD when she had it, also aged about 6, what it was and what it was called. So when someone at school started a little attempt at teasing, she simply told them exactly and without embarrassment what it was, which forestalled any sillyness.

Merrylegs · 02/02/2009 15:06

Gosh - that's brought back memories. DS had them when he was 4. They lasted about a year and a half. All over his upper arms and torso. I mean really obvious "point-and-stare-urgh-what-are-those-warts?" type.

BUT although he shared plenty of baths with his siblings, they never got them.

The thuija tablets did seem to work for a while but you have to be really consistent and persevere.

Popping them also helped.

He also had a couple frozen off by doctor, (but was such a wimp about it we didn't do it again.) Doc said they are so common and just let them run their course.

Basically we just lived with it and they did go. He has some very very faint scars but no more than small chicken pox ones.

deegward · 02/02/2009 15:09

My ds2 has had them, same as Merrlylegs. Over Christmas I took to painting then daily with germoline new skin stuff. They are all gone. He had had them for over a ear so maybe they were due to go anyway, but it did seem to work.

They are horrible looking things, MIL on hols this year woulddn;t cuddle ds2 without a towel between them, and kept looking at them

watsthestory · 02/02/2009 15:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

RedFraggle · 02/02/2009 16:26

My DD had them for over a year but only a few and they were never too red or angry looking. My DS has it now and they are everywhere. I read that if you take your child to the doctors, a common treatment is to have them scraped(!) so instead I gently squeeze the bigger ones after a bath or after holding a warm flannel over them. It is the white centre that is the contagious bit, as far I know from my web research

Doing this seems to have stopped new ones from appearing so far...

LIZS · 02/02/2009 16:30

dd 's just got rid of hers , took about 6 months . Funnily sudocrem seem to trigger the reduction in numbers and gradually the alrger ones burst and healed.

madwomanintheattic · 02/02/2009 16:37

dd1 had them on her trunk and inner arms - a few scarred, and they took about 18 months to clear completely. the other two seem to have got away with it. i only 'helped' them on their way when they were clearly going to get knocked or rubbed with the towel and bleed tbh.
how funny that so many kids have them and no-one mentions it lol. the gp prescribed a few things, but none of them seemed to help much.

curlygal · 02/02/2009 17:01

Wow I had no idea that they were so common.

I've never heard of them until DS got them.

I took him to the GP and he printed off a sheet about them but told me there was no treatment.

DS's have started to clear up now - so he;s had them for over two years. At the worst stage he had around 20 fairly big ones all over his torso. I tried to squeeze them (as I love squeezing spots but he got too distressed so I had to just leave them well alone and they have almost cleared up now.

The GP didn;t tell me that they were water borne - DS has been going swimming once a week the whole time, oops.

He has quite a lot of scars but I am just SO glad they are clearing up that it doesn;t matter.

I think that DS got them from his cousins as they also have them.

They are unsighltly but if they are not bothering your child I would just leave them well alone and be patient.

verygreenlawn · 02/02/2009 18:17

Ds2 had loads of these and after a year or so of being told they would all disappear, I decided to "take out" the biggest one - someone told me that if you do this the rest disappear quickly.

Worked for us - the others literally disappeared within a week.

If you decide to do this, don't squeeze it as this will be very painful - you have to kind of dig underneath it and pop/scrape out the hard white bit. Will probably bleed quite a bit too so have a plaster handy.

Gettinthehangofthisatlast · 02/02/2009 21:55

Really interesting to read all this! My dd too has had this a few weeks - took her to the nurse as seemed to appear just after her chickenpox was clearing up. Apparently it's a virus from the chicken pox family, which is why the blisters/ warts looked a bit familiar.
Wasn't told anything about not swimming. When I asked if it was contagious, she said "well, a bit. If she scratches you, you might get it a bit." or something like that. I was worried about passing it on to the other babies she sees a lot (having isolated her while having the cp). COuldn't do that for a year or more, though! I was told to expect it to last 10-12 months, but thinking about trying some of the tips as it is spreading from her arm to her chest now.

Lilyloo · 02/02/2009 22:01

ds has had his for 12 mths. Tried EA12 hour cream but not really working.
Have popped the largest but no real improvement.
Even worse dd1 has just got 2

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